Another the-sky-is-falling article which always follows the refusal of the FEC to expand the FECA to suit the reform industry.  What is not revealed in the article is that there were 2 proposals before the FEC. One, by the Republican members, to repeal regulations on corporation and labor unions based solely on the corporate prohibition struck down in CU.  This should have been a no brainer, but the Democrats blocked it.

 

    In contrast, the Democrats wanted to adopt regulations to expand the law, as if they had won CU, not lost it.  Adding new provisions to the FECA is not the FEC's business, but Congress's.  And what possible justification is there for not repealing regulation now unconstitutional under CU.

 

    Well the FEC must be good as dead, when it does not do the bidding of the reform industry.  Jim Bopp

 

"The FEC Is As Good As Dead; The new Republican commissioners are gutting campaign finance law."

I have written this Jurisprudence column for Slate. It begins:

Last week, the press was full of retrospectives on the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which freed corporate cash for use in federal elections. The Federal Election Commission, the six-member bipartisan body charged by Congress with administering and enforcing federal campaign finance laws, marked the anniversary with a 3-3 partisan deadlock over proposed rules to revamp those laws in light of the Citizens United opinion. Unfortunately, this was business as usual at the FEC: For the past several years the three Republican FEC commissioners have blocked enforcement of much of what remains of federal campaign finance law. As we enter the 2012 election season, the FEC is as good as dead, and the already troubling campaign finance world of secret unlimited donations is bound to get worse.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:30 AM